How Friendly Are Pet-Friendly Hotels?

Imagine this: you’re a pet parent of a relatively well-behaved dog. It’s been a few months since you took a real vacation from work, so you decide to get away for a week. Luckily, you come across a resort in the hills, which advertises itself as “pet-friendly.” “How convenient!” you think. You book a room for yourself and your pet for the following week.

On the day of your departure, you get everything ready and drive to your destination, along with your pooch, of course. You finally arrive, exhausted. The folks at the reception are welcoming. They show you both to your room. You shower, get ready and decide to head to the hotel’s restaurant.

“Sorry! No pets allowed,” says a sign at the eatery. Ok, no problem, you call room service instead.

After you’re done with the meal, you head to the spa. Now, it turns out that the spa forbids pets as well. So much for being pet-friendly!

My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we’ll bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.

In this episode, we’ll learn about pet-friendly hotels and resorts. How hospitable are they really?

NOTE: A machine transcribed this episode. A human has looked at this text but there might still be errors. Please refer to the audio above, if you need to clarify something. If you want to give us feedback, please write to us at [email protected].

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TRANSCRIPT

Kudrat (Host): Imagine this: you’re a pet parent of a relatively well-behaved dog. It’s been a few months since you took a real vacation from work, so you decide to get away for a week. Luckily, you come across a resort in the hills, which advertises itself as “pet-friendly.” “How convenient!” you think. You book a room for yourself and your pet for the following week.

On the day of your departure, you get everything ready and drive to your destination, along with your pooch, of course. You finally arrive, exhausted. The folks at the reception are welcoming. They show you both to your room. You shower, get ready and decide to head to the hotel’s restaurant.

“Sorry! No pets allowed,” says a sign at the eatery. Ok, no problem, you call room service instead.

After you’re done with the meal, you head to the spa. Now, it turns out that the spa forbids pets as well. So much for being pet-friendly!

Kudrat (Host): My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we’ll bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.

In this episode, we’ll learn about pet-friendly hotels and resorts. How hospitable are they really?

Kudrat (Host): Today, urban India has more pets than ever before. The consulting company Redseer published a report last year, which said that pet ownership in India is growing at a rate of 4-5% right now. From 26 million in 2019, Indians now have 32 million pets. This is of course, a phenomenon primarily among urban middle and high income people. Almost 90% of these pets are dogs, and the rest are cats, though some people also have more exotic pets like lizards and snakes and so on.

At the same time, the pet-care market in India is also increasing at a rate of 18-20%. In FY ‘24, the market was worth 3.6 billion dollars; the number includes both pet products – so shampoos, pet foods, as well as services, think pet boarding facilities, pet salons and so on.

Kudrat (Host): There’s another trend that’s related to this rise in pet ownership. More and more hotels and resorts and homestays are now advertising themselves as pet-friendly. A Business Today report says that there’s several five-star chain hotels that have joined the pet-friendly club. There’s Hyatt Regency Dehradun, Hyatt Place Hampi, the Courtyard Aravali Resort, the JW Marriott New Delhi, the Lemon Tree Hotels in some select locations – you get the point.

Specifically, this development happened after the pandemic, when there was a boom in the number of pet-owning families in the country. People were confined to their homes, so many more Indians decided to adopt animals. When the peak of social distancing ended, folks wanted to travel more. So, they took road trips with their pets, which was a demand these chains then attempted to fulfill.

In fact, around the time, the ITC Hotel chain even launched a ‘Petcaytion’ initiative, at their properties in Pahalgam, Mussoorie, Amritsar, and Jodhpur. These hotels now have targeted amenities like outdoor play areas, dog running areas as well as “vets on call.”

Clearly, it’s a better time to be a pet parent in India now than ever before.

Kudrat (Host): Still, there’s some factors for pet parents to consider. For starters, these services can be quite expensive. For instance, the ITC in Gurugram advertises itself as pet-friendly, but you’d have to pay an extra 5,000 rupees to bring your pet. An extra 5,000 rupees is not nothing. But of course, if you’re already traveling to the ITC and paying 20k for a night, that might not be such a deterrent for you. Even for cheaper resorts and BnB’s, pet parents often have to get larger suites.

And then, there’s another factor to consider. Which is that there’s no fixed criteria for what counts as pet-friendly. A hotel or resort can call themselves pet-friendly without actually being so.

Rohan Kanchan:  even when you're planning pet friendly resorts or hotels, there's a lot of restriction in terms of the usage of the pet areas.

But typically, even if for, if a hotel is pet friendly, you cannot go to the restaurant with the pet. And then that itself becomes a problem because if you have slightly more separation anxiety, pets like I have, then they won't sit alone and let you be at peace. So, uh, even if the location is pet, pet friendly, the access areas are not pet friendly.

Kudrat (Host): That was Mr. Rohan Kanchan, who’s a parent to a dog and a cat and works in PR/Communications. Mr. Kanchan told The Signal Daily that he’s had several such experiences, where hotels and resorts called themselves as pet-friendly but weren’t so in practice. Now, he says, he’s learned to prep for his travel in advance.

Rohan Kanchan:  So then, so now we ask very specific questions. Okay, are we allowed to allow, enter inside the restaurant? Can we bring a pet along? Because certain dogs, again, it depends. Okay.

Certain dogs are, can be kept within the rooms and they don't need to, uh, as well. Come in and she'll sit peacefully. She won't disturb, but. If she's not allowed access, then that's a problem. Mm-hmm. So you end up asking those questions at resorts where, you know, what all facilities can we use, can we use, typically restaurants are the noble  And, uh, common lobby areas and things like that, which they don't allow you to use.

Kudrat (Host): As I said before, there’s no strict criteria for what exactly counts as pet-friendly as of now. That’s why some resorts might call themselves so, but then they ask you to restrict the movement of your pets to your room.

That’s a problem which many pet parents experience. And, there’s companies trying to address that. Ms. Shikha Khandelwal is the founder of Pawcation, a website that collates resorts and holiday homes that are actually pet-friendly.

Shikha:  I started a platform called Caucasian India on Instagram in August 21. Uh. This arose out of my own need to find good pet friendly places for my vacations with my pet.

Uh, back then there were not enough platforms which gave correct information on pet friendly stays. I searched through various travel portals and there was a lot of misinformation on those platforms also, uh. So just doing my research, uh, for my own vacations led to a collection of a huge database.

Kudrat (Host): Ms. Khandelwal said she noticed that sometimes hotels said they were pet-friendly on travel platforms – you know your websites like Makemytrip and expedia – but when she called them, it turns out they weren’t. Or that it was an older policy that they’ve now changed.

At Pawcation, which is slowly becoming Ms. Khandelwal’s full-time job, she has some very specific-criteria for what counts as pet-friendly.

Shikha:  so for a hotel or a resort to be pet friendly, uh, first and foremost is that, uh, they should, the, the staff over there should be comfortable with pets.

Kudrat (Host): Another criteria that Pawcation has is that the resort or hotels should have open spaces where pets can run around freely, ideally leash free. One more is that there should be some facility at the hotel for fresh, home-cooked food, even simple things like boiled eggs, rice, chicken.

Shikha:  Also if the properties have access to reliable, uh, vets, just in case you know, there is, uh. A scenario where someone requires services of a vet.

Shikha: also one important aspect is, which a, a lot of properties do not provide and that would make an ideal, this, uh, pet friendly property is pet sitting services. So there are certain places where pets are not allowed. Uh, suppose someone is visiting a fort or a palace or a museum Yeah. Or a city, uh, pets are not allowed there.

Uh, so if, uh, property provides, uh, you know, kennel facility where we can leave our pets for a few hours, go visit those places and come back, yeah. That would be a, a bonus.

Kudrat (Host): In her experience, Ms. Khandelwal has found that the best places for pet parents right now are not hotels or resorts but rather airbnbs and homestays. That’s because those are properties that are generally most flexible. If you have a dog and you book an airbnb with a large open space, your dog can roam around freely and basically live his or her best life.

Kudrat (Host): One more thing to keep in mind is that most of this advice is mostly for pet parents with dogs. 90% of Indians have dogs, and while some of this still applies to cats, cats do generally exhibit different behaviour from dogs. Here’s Mr. Rohan talking about what he keeps in mind when he travels with his dog versus his cat.

Rohan Kanchan:  When you travel with a dog, it's not too many precautions to be taken. And most, uh, pet owners, I mean, the, the house owners are also comfortable, but when it comes to the cat, uh, we have certain things to factor in.

So typically, if it's an Airbnb kind of location or platform, we act, we, it may sound a little creepy, but we actually tell them, look, all these photos are fine, but can you send us specific photos of the interior of the room, including the roof? So with a cat, you have to ensure that there are no exit points.

They're very smart and they're constantly really curious and they're always looking for exit points. So, uh, when we travel, we cannot have those high roof mangalore tile kind of houses, because then if they move out, it's, and we've had a couple of scares like that with our cat. He's been in the house, but we've thought he's exited and it's been a nightmare trying to.

Kudrat (Host): That’s also similar to the advice that Ms. Khandelwal of Pawcation gives to pet parents.

Shikha Khandelwal:  So, uh, that is why I urge pet parents to understand the pet policy of a place before making a booking. You know, not just by saying, oh, this property is pet friendly. Let me book this property and just land up there and get to know that, oh, they do not allow.

Of this certain size or they have extra pet charges or, uh, other hidden, uh, you know, uh, uh, do's and don'ts or whatever, that does not work with our idea of a holiday. Yeah. Yeah, it's best to understand the pet policy, speak with the hotel, figure out what it is, and then, uh, go ahead with the booking.

Kudrat (Host): Right now, there’s a rise in SINKWADS and DINKWADS both in India and globally. SINKWADs, BTW, means Single-Income No Kids with a Dog and DINKWADS, means Double-Income No Kids with a Dog. At the same time, petcare and pet-friendly properties are also growing.

But, there’s no hard criteria for what actually classifies as pet-friendly, a problem that startups like Pawcation are trying to address. As a pet parent, your best bet right now, is to call the property you’re gonna go to, and ask specific questions about what’s allowed, and prepare adequately. Ms. Khandelwal and Mr. Kanchan also said that pet parents should be responsible – make sure to carry extra sheets and clean up after your pet and keep them on leash when that’s necessary. As a pet parent, a little extra planning goes a long way — ask the right questions, prepare well, and your next vacation can truly be pet-friendly

Kudrat (Host): That’s all for today. You just heard The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we’ll bring you deep dives into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ on consumer trends.

The Core produces The Signal Daily. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts. To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in.

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Thank you for listening.

Author:   Kudrat Wadhwa

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